Tag: <span>Healing</span>

January 20, 2021January 12, 2021

The One High Priest

This is a reflection on the Mass readings of the day.

The first reading of today adds gravity, solemnity, and context to today’s gospel.

The wondrous letter to the Hebrews beautifully points out Old Testament foreshadowing, preparation, and grounding for Jesus Christ’s role as the one eternal High Priest, that is, the One who offers the definitive sacrifice to the Father in effective, saving atonement for sin.

Today’s reading shows how the Old Testament priest Melchizedek prefigures Jesus. Melchizedek is not of known lineage–he appears to be without beginning–and his priestly order is said to last forever. So, no beginning, no end, symbolic of Jesus’ real eternal High Priesthood. Christ’s role could not be more pivotal, more regal–and it is eternal.

Then, in today’s gospel we consider this eternal High Priest in his real embodiment in flesh, in time. Here is all that time-independent, everlasting priestly greatness found within the confines of time and space, in that finite mode of being which is humanity.

And what is this great High Priest in the flesh doing? He is carrying out His saving priestly ministry; He is bursting through all the stifling artificial limitations created by man, to heal and to save. And as the unloving religious authorities of His day try to stop Him, He glares at them in anger and grieves at their hardness of heart.

This Jesus is so loveable! He is the very embodiment of love and mercy, and He cuts through all the miserable circumstance around us to fill us with His saving grace and effective healing.

Ideas for conversation with the Lord: Contemplate our great High Priest: All the splendor of eternity, combined “impossibly” but really with all the confines and limitations of our human condition. He lived within the same misery created by original sin that we live in, and showed us the way to remain peaceful within it, and confront it. As you consider the full stature of what He is, ask Him to transform you with His sanctifying grace so that your union with Him will cause a mirroring in your life of His divine-human reality.

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January 15, 2021January 6, 2021

Turning Point

This is a reflection on the Mass readings of the day.

It was nice of Jesus in today’s gospel to forgive the paralytic of his sins before He healed him. Nice little touch, nice add-on. Or, maybe something far, far more consequential than the healing itself.

The first reading tells us why this seemingly “easy” act of mercy on Jesus’ part was of such moment. A key statement: “But the word that they heard did not profit them.” The author is referring to the Hebrews of Exodus, who despite all God had done for them, did not heed His word in obedience.

This key phrase is reminiscent of Jesus’ parable of the sower. That word, that the Hebrews did not heed, was choked by the cares and worries of this world, like the seed that fell among weeds in the parable: Fear of the Canaanites; priority on their bellies. Also, like the seed that fell on rocky ground, the word of God penetrated the hearts of the Hebrews not but superficially. “The word that they heard did not profit them.”

And the letter to the Hebrews goes on to point out again and again, poignantly, the consequence of this failure to heed: “They shall not enter my rest.”

Perhaps the sins of the paralytic were a little fib here, or minor laziness there. Or maybe, like so many, the paralytic’s sin had consisted in failing to heed the word of God due to far too many distractions and too much indifference in his life.

The consequence of indifference to God’s word is in high relief in the first reading: “They shall not enter my rest.”

Jesus would die on the cross for the paralytic, and open the gates to eternal life for him. It may be that, in response to those who approached Him on behalf of the paralytic, His act of forgiving the personal sins of the man–an act merited in the Passion to come–was the deciding moment leading to eternal life for this soul, rather than eternal condemnation.

Ideas for conversation with the Lord: Pray for souls. Like those who brought the paralytic to Jesus, we can bring souls before Him, that He may shower upon them His mercy. We can do this. It lies within our power. Our zeal to intercede for sinful souls can mean eternal life for them, in place of the condemnation toward which they are now heading .

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December 7, 2020November 21, 2020

Get Up

This is a reflection on the Mass readings of the day.

Advent readings these days are full of prophecy-fulfillment dynamics.

Today’s first reading speaks of the lame leaping like a stag, and in the Gospel reading we see Jesus, the Messiah of prophecy, curing a paralyzed man and bidding him get up.

As we turn our hearts back in time this Advent and await with the pre-Christian world the coming of the Messiah, we do so with an advantage: We know how the story progresses when the Messiah comes. We know that He is indeed the complete fulfillment of the prophecies.

We know, for example, that as we develop a life of grace–that is, a life of prayer and the sacraments–He fulfills the prophecy of the first reading. The blind eyes of our hearts are opened through the wisdom and understanding that Jesus gradually confers on us as gifts of His Holy Spirit. The parched steppe of our hearts rejoices and blooms as it is watered with the blood of the lamb, and filled with fruitful grace.

But we can empathize deeply with the pre-Christian world, immersed in darkness and bereft of grace, as we consider how Jesus’ work in us is not yet complete, and will not be until He comes again: We are still in so many ways broken, in need of His continuing work of transformation.

Still, ultimately, the Advent message is one of hope–immense hope like that of the paralytic as he rose and picked up his stretcher, full of joy not only at having been cured of his paralysis, but also completely freed from the burden of sin.

Ideas for conversation with the Lord: Consider what forms of “paralysis” Jesus has already healed in you, and what remains to be healed. Give Him the consolation that He is thirsting for: The consolation of your trust. Tell Him that as you celebrate His coming again this Christmas, you know that He will continue to come into your life and work His transformation. And ask Him to do so in abundance.

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December 4, 2020November 18, 2020

Putting Back What Was Destroyed

This is a reflection on the Mass readings of the day.

Today’s readings are all about Redemption.

The first reading doesn’t just talk about forgiveness from sins–it talks about the Redemption that comes with that forgiveness. The image of Lebanon becoming like an orchard, a rich forest. The image of the restoration of faculties: The blind see, the deaf here.

Redemption is more than just the removal of guilt. It is the restoration of faculties lost with sin: Joy, hope, discernment, wisdom, willpower, etc.

Redemption is not the elimination of an evil stain, but the restoration of things destroyed by sin.

Jesus symbolizes throughout His public life the restoration He performs with His saving act of the whole human person, through the powerful restoration of physical faculties lost as an indirect result of sin, such as the faculty of sight. We see an example of this in today’s Gospel.

The fact that Redemption is not just a cleansing, but a positive restoration, is an exciting thing for our spiritual life. Whereas cleansing is limited to the degree of the stain, restoration of our faculties–and the ability to enhance them through grace–is as limitless as God Himself is limitless. Redemption is the foundation of a life-long, even eternal process of approximation of what we are as humans to the infinite love, goodness, wisdom of God.

Ideas for conversation with the Lord: Think back to the freeing feeling you experienced after one of your confessions. Yes, a burden was lifted. But consider too that your faculty for experiencing joy was restored, along with a restored ability to make good judgements and act on them. Thank Jesus again for this inestimable restorative gift, and ask Him to build an edifice of true holiness upon it–if not for your own sake, then for the sake of those whom holy persons can help save.

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